


Skin Like Iron

by Mysana



Series: Rule 63 [2]
Category: Iron Man (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Always a Different Sex, F/F, Female Tony Stark, Howard Stark's A+ Parenting, One Shot, Rule 63, Tony-centric
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-19
Updated: 2016-11-19
Packaged: 2018-08-31 23:07:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 972
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8597335
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mysana/pseuds/Mysana
Summary: It doesn't take long for Toni to get skin like iron.





	

As Toni grows up she wonders again and again if thing would be different if she were a boy. 

 

At 7, when she still went by Natasha, she wondered as Howard stormed through the house smelling of bitter spirits and sweat. As he swore at Maria about how it was her fault he had no “proper heir”. At 13, Nat pondered this while sitting in a car on her way to boarding school for “young women”. She knew she would hate it there. At 15, Nat becomes Toni when she learns that Maria had been hoping she would be named Antonia after her grandfather. Apparently he was wise and calm and well collected. Everything Howard isn’t. At 15 Toni decides, “fuck Howard” just before she turns 16 and he dies. 

 

The difference that Toni will never know is that at 16, Anthony Stark was offered a small glass of whiskey by Obi  “just this once”. “Just this once” led to another and another. To rehab and drugs and rehab again. In this universe Obi leers a little too much at Toni’s mini skirt, and although she trusts Obi. She never likes him. Instead of a glass of whiskey she gets a hug and a glass of wine. Neither Toni or Tony like wine. 

 

Somehow this one moment changes everything. Just because Obi thought a girl couldn’t handle whiskey, everything goes down a different path. JARVIS is still built, just a little faster. A little less desperately, a little more elegantly. This JARVIS is finished before Jarvis dies of terminal cancer. This JARVIS gets to meet his namesake and is better for it. 

 

In this world Toni still enjoys sex. But instead of being called a ‘playboy’ she’s a ‘slut’ and a ‘whore’ and ‘attention seeking’. It doesn’t take long her skin to become harder than iron. That said, the verbal and physical scars take a long time to heal. She also learns that the people who say they love you don’t mean it, and she will never have kids no matter how many times someone asks. There is no “accidental child fund”. 

 

In this world, instead of learning boxing for fun, Toni learns Krav Maga for safety. The first time she breaks a man hand it makes her sick. But it’s still better than the alternative. 

 

In this universe, Toni learns that makeup is a sort of armour, that heels can kill, and that smiles can hurt. And she _uses_ it. She goes on talk shows and laughs and smiles and hates them all inside without showing it. Stark Industries starts to recover from having a woman at its head. Toni still sells weapons. Still knows how to assemble a gun with her eyes closed and her hands behind her back.

 

The difference is, it doesn’t make her uncomfortable. In this world too many people dislike the idea of a woman making weapons for Toni to dislike it herself. This Toni _loves_ being called the _Mistress of Death_. In this universe, when Pepper Potts comes it to inform her that someone is stealing from her company, things go differently. 

 

Toni herself has been flirted with too many times; she doesn’t inflict it on anyone else. So instead of a seductive smile, Toni frowns and looks carefully. Instead of immediately firing the obvious culprit, Toni watches. She hires Pepper not as her assistant but as her Financial Manager. The first of the position. This time, Pepper goes through _everything_ to try and make sure no one else is stealing money or weapons. Toni trusts Obi, but doesn’t like him. So when Pepper comes to her looking all too pale, Toni listens and plots. 

 

This time it only takes ten years to catch Obi - Stane - instead of twenty. 

 

In this universe, Toni never gets kidnapped. 

 

Instead she stops making weapons and starts making protection. Because if violence isn’t the answer, that doesn’t mean abandoning the troops is. Toni can’t afford to make people hate her like that. They hate that she’s a woman in power already and if she’s seen as weak, she’s gone. She starts making a thin under armour layer that have very, very good tracking systems. Impossible to remove and destroy. And also stops sand from getting into uncomfortable places. This helps find captured troops as well as seeing who’s where.  But Toni’s already learned her lesson about trusting people. 

 

Toni keeps the tracking devices and if someone needs to use them, they have to go to Toni. That’s how she learns about SHIELD. Because in this universe, like in every other, she’s too good to ignore. 

 

This Toni meets Natasha and they become friends before they become lovers. They don’t love each other, they don’t trust each other, but… that doesn’t mean it’s not nice to relax every once and a while. (Three day sex marathons are good too.)

 

Toni isn’t very good at letting go of things though, so when she’s not busy having awesome sex with Russian spies, she’s working on her suits. she makes them better at maintaining a comfortable temperature. She makes them less conscious so they stop looking like sexy body suits and start looking like business clothes or army uniforms. 

 

She makes Natasha a tan leather jacket that can hide 15 knives and gun. It’s bullet proof and (hidden so no one can see) there is a tiny red stitching. Forming an X over the heart. (Toni doesn’t love Natasha. Honestly.)

 

She makes herself a dress out of it. Full length and beautiful in red and gold. This one, it’s bullet proof too. It also lets her move enough to fight and has lock picks and a gun. She wears it on the cover of Vogue and she feels she could laugh. 

 

Because her father wanted a son, but she is _so_ much better.

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this in thirty minutes in a fit of inspiration. I kinda felt bad because Steve's life was so much worse as a girl's, and I decided that Tony's would be better. Let me know what you think in the comments below! :D
> 
> Un-beta'd


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